Phase 1 of NCS got off to a great start, despite the rain. Everyone started to make friends before we even arrived at the Kingswood centre in Hexham.
Once we arrived at the centre, we we’re greeted by the wonderful Kingswood staff, who gave us a quick tour. All the young people were excited for the rest of the week and we finished with self leadership. The team leaders and mentors started bonding with their teams and already the young people started to learn what is to be a leader, and devolved their listening and communication skills.
Throughout the week, everyone started to come out of their shells and challenge their comfort zones in activities like the 3G swing, leap of faith and abseiling . It was great to see the young people fully supporting each other during the activities and made us realise why we do this job. We also increased our survival skills, in case there’s ever a hunger games, in sessions like shelter building, fire lighting, bush craft and archery.
As the week progressed the teams gelled together and the activities, as well as the reflections, started to draw out important learning points like ownership and responsibility, leadership and comfort zones. We could already see the growth and boost in confidence in that everyone had.
By the end of the first week the young people had big realisations about themselves and how much potential they had to contribute to society